


On Love's Light Wings

by Visinata



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Gen, Nosy Penny, One-Shot, POV Simon, Shakespeare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 00:56:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6099556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Visinata/pseuds/Visinata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Penny's curious about the spell Baz used that night in the White Chapel. Baz doesn't want to talk about it, but Penny can't let it go.</p><p>EDIT: I've reworked the beginning and tweaked some bits in the middle. I think it flows better now, and Baz's snark factor has been slightly increased, which is always good. I hope you agree!</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Love's Light Wings

SIMON

I hear the door to the flat open from my bedroom, where I’m getting dressed after my shower. Penny's already home, so I assume it must be Baz. With my door ajar I can easily hear any voices coming from the lounge. In fact, I’m just about finished dressing when I hear Penny pipe up.

"I've been reading some Shakespeare,” she says.

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none,” Baz replies.

I decide to wait a few minutes before joining them. I'm so often a part of the conversation, it's kind of nice for a change to sit back and listen to Penny and Baz interact, just the two of them.

Penny laughs. “That sums the three of us up pretty well, doesn’t it? But I’m not reading All’s Well That Ends Well.”

There’s a pause. I can tell she’s waiting for Baz to ask what she _is_ reading. Baz can probably tell too, but he doesn’t say anything, the twat.

“Actually, I’m reading Romeo and Juliet,” she continues. She’s never been good at waiting for other people to get to the point.

“Really? I had everything worthwhile in it memorized by third year.” I can hear the carefully cultivated boredom creeping into Baz’s voice.

"Act Two, scene two, specifically.”

"Ah, yes, everyone's favorite." His disinterest is so thick now you could cut it with a knife.

"I was just at this bit, actually, where Juliet says 'How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?' and then Romeo replies '...'"

"Yes, Bunce,” Baz cuts her off before she can continue, “we all know how that scene goes." Now he sounds more annoyed than bored, and I think he's moved to the kitchen because I can hear someone banging around with the tea things, even though Baz isn’t usually someone to bangs things around. 

There's a pause, then Penny bursts out, "Baz! How did you do it?"

“Forgotten how to speak clearly, have you? That’s more Snow’s line.”

“Oh, come off it. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. That’s a devilishly hard spell! How did you know it would work?"

Baz is quite for a moment. Then he speaks again, his voice lower.

"What other option did we have?"

"You're not answering the question.”

"I met all of the requirements for it to work, as you well know. And if you're doubting my pronunciation or elocution, allow me to remind you that I finished at the top of our class."

"Only because I wasn't there!"

I'm not in the room, but I know Baz must have at least one eyebrow in the air at that.

"And you know that's not what I'm talking about," Penny continues. "You met all the requirements, so what? even a great mage can't just try out a spell of that complexity and expect it to work perfectly the first time! And you not only made it work, but it was strong enough to lift both of us all the way up into the tower. You must have spent a significant amount of time practicing it!"

Baz responds, but his voice is so quiet I can't hear what he says.

"I knew it!" Penny sounds self-satisfied and excited. "But when? Doesn't it help to be near the object of your affection, especially when you're learning the spell?"

"We did share a room, Bunce. Are you being purposefully obtuse?"

"But you never would have with Simon in the room, he would have put two and two together."

"You're giving him too much credit."

"I am not. He's very smart, and you know it."

I smile at Penny’s compliment and, if I’m honest, because a small part of me is enjoying Baz’s clear discomfort, especially after he’s just insulted me, even though I know he doesn’t mean it.  

I hear Baz mumble another reply, it's really unlike him to speak unclearly. He usually just clams up and gets haughty if he really doesn't want to talk about something.

"You didn't!" Penny practically shrieks. Now she's laughing. "What if he'd woken up and seen you up there?"

"He almost did once." Now Baz sounds like he's laughing a bit himself. "I cast **Who turned out the lights?**  and made it back down to my bed before he could see properly."

I'm about to come out of my room, to tell him I remember the night I woke from a nightmare to find our room blanketed in an unnatural darkness, when Penny speaks again.

"But what about the other part, what about meeting the requirements?"

"What about it? It's fairly self-explanatory."

"Yes, but I love Micah, and when I tried **on love’s light wings** last time I was visiting him, I barely got off the ground. Honestly, before I heard you do it, I thought no one ever really used that spell. I mean, it's from the most iconically sappy teenage love story of all time, and It's based on Shakespeare's poetically over-the-top ideas about young love."

There's a pause, then I hear Baz's voice again, quiet, but clear. "For it to work, you don't just have to love somebody, you have to be..." 

"Completely, head-over-heels, ridiculously besotted with somebody?" Penny finishes for him.

"Yeah." Baz says. "And also," his voice is back to its usual volume now, "the similarities between Simon and me and Romeo and Juliet may have helped. I mean, we certainly were on opposing sides of a political divide, from two families, if you count the Mage as Simon's family, who never would have sanctioned a match between us. Or perhaps it's simply that being in love is yet another thing I'm more skilled at than you are, Bunce."

Penny laughs.

I decide this is as good a time as any to join the conversation, so I come out of my room and head straight for Baz.

"Thank you for saving my life that night, and thank you for being so ridiculously in love with me," I say, wrapping him in a big hug. He returns the favor, burying his head in my hair, I think he's still a little embarrassed about this conversation. But then he pulls back enough to look me in the eye and it sends shivers up my spine. I move in for a kiss, and we spend a fair few moments snogging shamelessly right in the middle of the lounge. Until Penny's had enough.

"Oy, Romeo!" We both stop suddenly and turn our heads to look at Penny. She gives us a massive eye-roll, then sends our mugs of tea flying towards us from the kitchen with a flick of her ring hand and a **Take that!** " 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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